J. Parkinson, 1629

PARKINSON, John (1567-1650). Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris. Or a Garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers. London: Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young, 1629.

First edition of “one of the most beloved of all early English books on gardening” (Hunt).Parkinson was apothecary and botanist to Charles I, and a large number of the nearly 1000 plants described in this book were grown by the author himself in his garden at Long Acre. The book is filled with references to contemporary botanists and gardeners, and provides one of the best single sources of information on gardening practices and styles in early 17th-century England, "in such a delightful, homey style that gardeners cherish it to the present day" (Hunt). ESTC S115360; Hunt 215; Nissen BBI 1489; Pritzel 6933.

Folio (322 x 206mm). Woodcut title with elaborate scene of the Garden of Eden, signed "A Switzer", 108 full-page woodcuts each with numerous figures of plants, one full-page woodcut of garden designs, 3 small text woodcuts, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials (lacking final two leaves: “A Table of the Vertues and Properties of the Hearbes contained in this Booke” and colophon; title page rehinged, portrait leaf supplied from another copy; two leaves with corner tears affecting text; some leaves with short closed marginal tears touching text or woodcut; some staining and spotting). Old calf (rebacked). Provenance: John Blake (gift inscription from his aunt Elizabeth Blake) – H. C. L. Morris, M. D. (bookplate).